CJCJ's Policy Analyst, Brian Goldstein, is featured in the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (JJIE) discussing the reform efforts that have happened among policymakers and advocacy groups after the Sandy Hook tragedy. Concerns are presented with regard to the the potential over reliance on the juvenile justice system to address issues in the educational environment.

While effects of the recent recession and slow economic rebound on the U.S. labor market have been well documented, less attention has been paid specifically to youth unemployment and its potential long-term impacts . The rate of employment for 16-19 year-olds in the U.S. has dropped 42% since 2000, leaving 3 of 4 such youth jobless. Even brief spells of youthful unemployment can cause what the Economist calls "wage scars "--decreased earning power lasting well into workers' adult years. …

California's budget demonstrates a commitment to correctional spending despite continued funding cuts to other important social services. According to California Common Sense , since 1980 "...the number of incarcerated felons in state prisons has increased more than eightfold despite relatively stable crime rates." Incarcerations and related costs have been driven up in part by the unnecessary incarceration of low-risk, non-violent offenders due to the Three Strikes law and similar…

California is home to one of the finest higher education systems in the world; a catalyst for innovation, job creation, and academic excellence. This includes the California Community Colleges, California State University (CSU), and University of California (UC) systems. Higher education funds represent a long-term investment that accrues dividends beyond the classroom. On May 14, Governor Brown released his revised 2012-13 budget that outlined measures to fill an estimated $15.7 billion…

The Senate and Assembly Budget Subcommittees on Public Safety are being pressured to reconsider the Governor's revised cost-saving proposal for the state's youth correctional system, the Division of Juvenile Facilities (commonly referred to as DJJ). Law enforcement agencies are demanding that the Legislature reduce or eliminate the new $24,000 per ward fee structure, which was proposed by the Governor's office in the May revised budget. This amount greatly contributes to the $24.8 million in…

In my last blog I discussed the importance of social class as a determinant of everything that matters in life. In this blog I quote a study that stated "Poverty and social disadvantage are most strongly associated with deficits in children's cognitive skills and educational achievements." Social class strongly correlates with the level of education one receives including the probability of dropping out, which in turn strongly relates to crime and delinquency. Two recent studies further…

A March 1st SF Chronicle article highlighted recent comments made in Washington D.C. by retiring SF State President Robert Corrigan about California's excessive prison spending and annual cuts to higher education. He noted that, "California is spending nearly as much money on prisons ($8.7 billion, or 9.45 percent of its budget), as it does on all of higher education ($9.3 billion, or 10.1 percent of its budget)". Looking at just the UC's and CSU's, the state spends less than half ($4.6…

The evidence is clear: having police on school campuses creates more problems than it solves. This evidence has been provided by a detailed report from the Justice Policy Institute (JPI) called "Education Under Arrest: The Case Against Police in Schools ." The reported noted that between 1997 and 2007 the number of "school resource officers" (SRO's) increased by 38%, largely as a result of zero tolerance policies enacted during this time. Paralleling this growth has been the increase of…

(ISSN 1530-3012)
From the editor
Warehoused: The Plight of 'Mad' Youths in the Juvenile Justice System
Race-Based Decisions: Traffic Citations and Municipal Court Dispositions
Mass Shootings in Australia and New Zealand: A Descriptive Study of Incidence
From War Zones to Jail: Veteran Reintegration Problems
Does Age or Poverty Level Best Predict Criminal Arrest and Homicide Rates? A Preliminary Investigation
From the editor
By Elizabeth Brown, Ph.D. and Randall G.…

I was browsing the Internet this morning and in the New York Times there was a blog posted by Charles M. Blow called American's Most Vulnerable . He cited a report by Unicef (United Nations Children's Fund) called "Children Left Behind." The report was about "the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) International Coordinating Centre provided the statistical results for the analysis of inequality in children's health." It was based upon data collected by the "Organization for…

In a previous blog I discussed the relationship between dropping out and crime among juveniles. In this blog I noted that that compared to high school graduates dropouts "earn lower wages, pay fewer taxes, are more likely to commit crimes, are less likely to be employed, are more likely to be on welfare, and are less healthy." "" On my web site I expanded on this by exploring what the Children's Defense Fund has called the prison pipeline or the connection between the…

It has become a truism that there is a close connection between school failure and juvenile crime, as demonstrated by literally hundreds of studies over the past 100 years. As if to remind us once again, here comes yet another study, this one by the California Dropout Research Project at UC Santa Barbara. As reported in today's Los Angeles Times , dropping out of school costs the state $1.1 billion each year and if we decreased the number of dropouts by half it would save $550 million per…